gastownhall/beads · error

strict mode: found %d orphaned dependencies

Error message

strict mode: found %d orphaned dependencies

What it means

This is an intentional strict-mode abort: `bd migrate-issues --strict` refuses to proceed when the migration set contains orphaned dependencies — dependencies whose target issues are outside the migration set. Migrating would leave dangling references in the destination, so the command stops before building the plan. The count in the message tells you how many orphaned edges were found.

Source

Thrown at cmd/bd/migrate_issues.go:168

		}
		fmt.Println("Nothing to do: no issues match the specified filters")
		return nil
	}

	// Step 3: Expand set to M (migration set) based on --include
	migrationSet, dependencyStats, err := expandMigrationSet(ctx, s, candidates, p)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("failed to compute migration set: %w", err)
	}

	// Step 4: Check for orphaned dependencies
	orphans, err := checkOrphanedDependencies(ctx, s)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("failed to check dependencies: %w", err)
	}

	if len(orphans) > 0 && p.strict {
		return fmt.Errorf("strict mode: found %d orphaned dependencies", len(orphans))
	}

	// Step 5: Build migration plan
	plan := buildMigrationPlan(candidates, migrationSet, dependencyStats, orphans, p.from, p.to)

	// Step 6: Display plan
	if err := displayMigrationPlan(plan, p.dryRun); err != nil {
		return err
	}

	// Step 7: Execute migration if not dry-run
	if !p.dryRun {
		if !p.yes && !jsonOutput {
			if !confirmMigration(plan) {
				fmt.Println("Migration canceled")
				return nil
			}
		}

View on GitHub (pinned to 71377f2769)

Solutions

1. Re-run with --include dependencies (or a wider filter) so linked issues join the migration set
2. Drop --strict to get a warning instead of an abort, then review the reported orphans
3. Manually resolve or delete the orphaned dependency records before migrating
4. Use the JSON output to enumerate orphans and fix them in bulk

Example fix

// before: aborts
cmd bd migrate-issues --from old-repo --to new-repo --strict
// after: include linked deps so no orphans remain
cmd bd migrate-issues --from old-repo --to new-repo --strict --include dependencies

// pre-check: plan first and inspect the orphan count in JSON output
bd migrate-issues --from old --to new --include dependencies --dry-run --json | jq '.orphans'
# only run with --strict when the orphan list is empty

function hasNoOrphans(planResult) {
  return Array.isArray(planResult.orphans) && planResult.orphans.length === 0;
}

When it happens

Trigger: len(orphans) > 0 && p.strict in executeMigrateIssues — orphaned dependencies exist and --strict was passed.

Common situations: Migrating a filtered subset of issues whose cross-references span repos or labels not included by --include; migrating between repos where the dependency partner lives in the source repo; partial earlier migrations left half-moved dependency graphs.

Related errors

• %s
• failed to find candidate issues: %w
• failed to compute migration set: %w
• failed to check dependencies: %w
• migration failed: %w

AI-assisted analysis of gastownhall/beads@71377f2769 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/96fafbb1dc6820de. Report an issue: GitHub.